Para Athletics Championships: Silver lining for Kadeena Cox

IT took a world record run to deny Leeds star Kadeena Cox gold on a successful night for Great Britain at the World Para Athletics Championships.

Sophie Hahn smashed her own world record to complete a double gold bid as she defended her T38 100m title.

The 20-year-old stormed ahead of team-mate Cox, who finished second, to beat her previous record and win in 12.44 seconds at the London Stadium on Saturday.

Hahn, the 100m Paralympic champion, added the title to her T38 200m crown after she won in another world record time last weekend.

Georgie Hermitage also won in the T37 100m to claim her second gold of the championships while Aled Davies triumphed in the men’s F42 shot put with a world record throw of 17.52m.

It took the hosts’ medal tally to 35 ahead of Sunday’s final sessions.

Cox completed a British one-two behind Hahn in a season’s best of 13.07 after winning the T38 400m on Friday despite a hamstring problem and admitted she got little sleep after muscle spasms overnight.

“I think I got about two hours’ sleep,” said the 26-year-old, who has MS. “It’s hard because the muscle spasms keep me awake and then once I did get to sleep for a bit the muscle spasms woke me up. I deserve a good night’s sleep.

“I said I had a gold and a bronze (in the 200m) so I might as well get a silver to have the full set. I’m happy. I had an up and down night. I spent the night with the medical team because my body was out of control.”

Hahn set her old record of 12.60secs two years ago in Doha when she won the 100m in the last World Championships, although did run 12.49 at the Loughborough International Athletics 2017 meet in May but it was not ratified.

She kick-started the gold rush, which all came inside 80 minutes, and believes she can go even faster.

Hahn said: “I knew I was going well in training so I just thought I’d got to win the gold to do a repeat of last Saturday. I was feeling really good this week and to get a double world record is phenomenal.

“When I crossed the line I caught a glimpse of the clock and when I saw the time I was absolutely over the moon.

“I’d like to go maybe 12.3 or 12.2 seconds. I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself but we’ll see what happens next year. I’ve trained really hard this year. It’s what I’ve been working for.”

Hermitage won the T37 400m on Thursday and was relieved to claim victory before she returns to normality.

She said: “I’m relieved it’s all over. I know that sounds like an awful thing to say but coming into these championships, it wasn’t ideal. That race, I didn’t execute it well enough.

“My daughter (Tilly) is here with her auntie - my dad and my sister are here. I’m here until Sunday and then I am going home and back to packed lunches and school runs and Peppa Pig life.

“I said ‘hello baby’ (after the race) and she said ‘Whizbee’ (the championship mascot). She just wants the blooming bee! I’m going to have buy one of those outfits to go around the house with with a hoover!”

Davies added to his F42 discus title to break his own world record which previously stood at 16.13m.

He said: “I wanted to show I’m in a league above everyone else. This is what it’s all about. It’s overwhelming, we’ve been working for this all winter. It’s been such a hard turnaround since Rio but I believe in my training and trusted my coach.”

Earlier in the day Jonathan Broom-Edwards claimed silver in the men’s T44 high jump.

The 29-year-old cleared two metres and eight centimetres but lost out to Polish world record holder Maciej Lepiato who cleared 2.14 metres. Broom-Edwards added to his Paralympic silver medal which he won in Rio last year.

Para-athletics: Cockroft fears for futre after being left in fixtures limbo